Cathedral of Castelo Branco

The Church of S. Miguel, which is the beautiful Cathedral of Castelo Branco, probably dates back to the 13th or 14th century.

The Church of S. Miguel, which is the beautiful Cathedral of Castelo Branco, probably dates back to the 13th or 14th century. But it was much ruined on the last quarter of the 17th century. Lacking the means to make a monumental work, it was D. Martim Afonso de Melo, Bishop of Guarda, who rebuilt it on the last quarter of the 17th century, paying most of the expenditure in its reconstruction. The façade has almost no ornaments. It only has one nave, separated from the main chapel by a beautiful Renaissance arch with the coat of arms of the Bishop on top, as shown by the headstone inside the Cathedral on one of the lateral walls. The second bishop of the diocese of Castelo Branco, Vicente Ferrer da Rocha (1782-1814), ordered the construction (in Baroque style) of two lateral areas: the great sacristy and the Chapel of the Holy Sacrament.